Shirov Wins 2012 Keres Memorial
The Estonian Grandmaster Paul Keres (1916-1975) is widely regarded as one of the greatest chess players never to attained the title of World Champion.
There is an annual memorial chess tournament held every year in Tallinn, and this year Alexei Shirov repeated his success in the 2011 competition.
Since 1 January 2012, Alexei Shirov is representing Latvia once again after representing Spain for many years.
Held from 6-8 January, the event consisted of a preliminary qualifying Swiss, from which the four best finishers qualified to join another four invited players for a round-robin finale.
Games were played at a time control of 15 minutes plus a 10 second increment.
The final standings in the round-robin:
| Name | Nat | Elo | Pts | |
| 1 | Shirov Alexei | LAT | 2710 | 5.0 |
| 2 | Fedoseev Vladimir | RUS | 2525 | 5.0 |
| 3 | Ehlvest Jaan | USA | 2594 | 4.0 |
| 4 | Kalifman Alexander | RUS | 2632 | 3.5 |
| 5 | Nybäck Tomi | FIN | 2634 | 3.5 |
| 6 | Volodin Aleksandr | EST | 2491 | 3.0 |
| 7 | Külaots Kaido | EST | 2581 | 2.5 |
| 8 | Seeman Tarvo | EST | 2399 | 1.5 |
The top finishers in the prelims:
| Name | Nat | Elo | Pts | |
| 1 | Seeman Tarvo | EST | 2399 | 6.0 |
| 2 | Fedoseev Vladimir | RUS | 2525 | 6.0 |
| 3 | Khalifman Alexander | RUS | 2632 | 5.5 |
| 4 | Volodin Aleksandr | EST | 2491 | 5.5 |
| 5 | Shvõrjov Igor | EST | 2470 | 5.5 |
| 6 | Gabovits Ilia | EST | 1882 | 5.5 |
| 7 | Kovaljov Denis | EST | 2274 | 5.5 |
| 8 | Rauk Tõnu | EST | 2205 | 5.5 |
| 9 | Westerinen Heikki M J | FIN | 2318 | 5.0 |
| 10 | Ryzhkov Vjacheslav | RUS | 2140 | 5.0 |
| 11 | Vovk Ilja | EST | 2233 | 5.0 |
| 12 | Daulyte Deimante | LTU | 2223 | 5.0 |
| 13 | Agopov Mikael | FIN | 2448 | 4.5 |
| 14 | Shishkov Andrei | EST | 2380 | 4.5 |
| 15 | Valner Uku | EST | 2197 | 4.5 |
| 16 | Hartikainen Markku | FIN | 2334 | 4.5 |
| 17 | Holvason Juri | EST | 2122 | 4.5 |
| 18 | Paakkonen Timo | FIN | 2282 | 4.5 |
| 19 | Remmel Anto | EST | 2263 | 4.5 |
| 20 | Tusa Tuukka | FIN | 2173 | 4.5 |
